How young should kids start playing team sports?

COMMENTARY - Sports & parenthood

When I was 5, my mom enrolled me in ballet. I cried and never went back. Pink tights and leotards were never really my thing. Throwing footballs and hitting baseballs -- now that was more like it.

I never played on a team as a little girl, though. Instead, I played with the boys in the neighborhood. I was tough, or at least I thought I was when I broke my wrist going back to pass in a street football game when I was 11.

I must have been proud, because I remember that day like it was yesterday. When junior high rolled around, I finally joined a team, playing softball for one year. Unfortunately, there were only two other teams in my district, so we went 1-1 and that was it for my softball career.

Today, the thought of two softball teams in a district is laughable. The options are limitless for little girls. They can play anything, from softball to soccer to basketball. Even football.

Now that I am days away from having a little girl of my own, I have wondered what her future in sports will hold. Will I put her on a sports team, or will I leave the decisions up to her? What is the best time to get a child involved in sports, anyway? Will she even want to play sports?

I realized I was clueless, since I never had a sports experience of my own.

"Mom, why did you enroll me in ballet?" I asked the other night.

"I wanted you to have an after school activity, and I picked ballet because it was the most girly," she said. "I thought you would like it. I don't think the after school activities offered sports teams for girls."

"Well, what if your granddaughter played sports?" I asked.

"Oh sure, why not," she said. "I would love it. Except football."

It is important for my daughter to be physically active, either doing an individual sport like swimming or gymnastics, or joining a team.

There is a variety of opinion on when kids should start playing team sports, especially since kids today are being groomed at younger and younger ages to be super athletes. That has led to an alarming statistic -- about 70 percent of kids quit youth sports by the time they are 13 because of burnout.

Experts agree that kids should start playing on recreation league teams, and some say children can start as early as 3. Others say kids should be between 8-10, when their bodies are more developed, and they can start understanding strategy and the concept of teamwork.

Then they can join a competitive team around ages 12-13.

That idea is laughable to many and perfectly illustrates the growing disconnect between parents who want their kids to be superstars right out of the womb and experts who point to studies that show waiting to get a child involved on a competitive team helps them in the long run.

But try explaining that to someone who has waited until their child is 8 to enroll them in soccer, when everyone else has been playing since they were 3.

"The research says the real good athletes will show up at about 13 or 14 or sometimes 15," said Dr. Jim Brown, who has written 14 books on health, medicine, and sports including "Sports Talent: How to Identify and Develop Outstanding Athletes."

"This rush to get kids in organized sports early and put them on elite teams if the kid is not ready physically or emotionally when they are 6 or 8 years old -- sometimes they drop out and we never get them back."

There is also peer pressure to get kids involved in sports at a young age. Rae Pica, a children's physical activity specialist and host of www.bodymindandchild.com, told the story about a mother who came to her and said she was feeling pressure to put her 2 1/2 -year-old in a competitive soccer league.

"Success in sports has come to be associated with success in life," Pica said. "That association is so strong in parents' minds, they're fearful if they don't follow the crowd, they feel their children will be left behind. But there isn't any reason to worry because children catch up and often surpass the children who started before they're developmentally ready."

Parents also believe it is best to have their kids specialize in one sport. Beth Woodson, whose 11-year-old daughter, Megan, is on the Under-10 Orlando Aftershock 97 softball tournament team had Megan choose between gymnastics and softball at age 9.

So far it has paid off, when Megan's team finished second at the USAAA Fast Pitch World Series at Disney this month.

"To me if you're going to be good at something you have to figure out what you're good at and stick to that sport," Woodson said.

But experts believe it is important for kids to play a variety of sports through their middle school years because it really helps them figure out what they like to play, and aids in their athletic development.

So my plan is to introduce my daughter to sports when I feel she is ready and go from there. If she cries the first day and never wants to go back, that is just fine.